Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: Malus.
Variety denomination: xe2x80x98JFS-KW5xe2x80x99.
In 1990, I began a program of crabapple cultivar development. In this program, I obtained select seed by both hybridizing and picking open pollinated seed off superior parent trees which are located near desirable pollinators. In 1994, I picked seed from a Malus transitoria xe2x80x98Schmidtcutleafxe2x80x99 (unpatented) tree growing in the J. Frank Schmidt and Son Co. nursery arboretum in Boring, Oreg. I directed the planting of this seed in a cultivated area, and more specifically in the nursery propagation seedbeds located in Boring, Oreg. During the following summer, I noticed that among the hundreds of green leafed seedlings, three purple leafed trees were growing. I planted all the seedlings from this seed lot out into rows and began a systematic evaluation of them. Through this evaluation process, I selected my cultivar xe2x80x98JFS-KW5xe2x80x99 as a single plant and I discovered that it was superior in many ways to other seedlings in the nursery row. I first selected it because of its dark purple foliage color and apparent disease resistance. As it grew older, I discovered that it possessed attractive flowers and fruit. Over several years, I evaluated its resistance to the common crabapple diseases fireblight and apple scab. I found that my cultivar is highly resistant to both. Further observation proved that the xe2x80x98JFS-KW5xe2x80x99 variety has superior features which set it apart from other selections under observation as well as from all other existing crabapple cultivars that are in nursery production. I have directed the propagation of my cultivar by chip budding in test plots on Malus xe2x80x98EMLA 111xe2x80x99 (unpatented) understock, beginning in 1997. This asexual propagation was accomplished in Canby, Oreg. Observation of the resulting propagated plants has shown that the characteristics are firmly fixed. Trees propagated on this understock have been identical to the original parent in every manner that has been observed.
This new cultivar possesses a unique combination of characteristics in that it combines greyed-purple summer foliage color, a deeply lobed ornamental leaf except for early leaves which tend to be entire, these early leaves appear with the flowers or shortly thereafter, bright reddish flowers, excellent form and foliage density, and excellent resistance to the diseases fireblight and scab.